WOW Air

**Woah this turned out way longer than I expected, but I hope someone finds it useful or at least interesting!**


Last week, I took WOW Air from Boston through Reykjavik and on to Paris.  I first heard about WOW a year or two ago, when a friend of a friend went on a trip to Iceland just because the tickets were cheap.  It seemed like a very random and somewhat sketchy way to take a vacation, but I was intrigued.  So a few months ago when I heard about this flight from Boston to Paris through Iceland, I was very excited to try it out for myself.  So here are my thoughts:

• The Aesthetic™

In contrast to most other airlines' dull blue/red color schemes, WOW boasts bright fuschia accents on their planes.  It was a bit childish, but I thought it was very fun and brightened up my day a bit.  Plus, they also had some fun extras, like the vomit bag and text on the wings below:

"Enjoying the View?" on WOW's wing

The Luggage Rules

The luggage rules are very strict.  For example, you must have a tag on all of your bags including your carry-ons.  Furthermore, there is a distinction between a carry-on that goes under the seat in front of you, which is free, and a carry-on that goes in the overhead bin, which is $40-50.  Then you can check up to 3 bags with a maximum of 44 pounds/20 kilograms per bag (not 50 pounds like domestic flights - I was at 19.7 kg for each of my bags!).  These cost $50-70 each.  So, it's quite a steep price, but I think the system works very well.  So often on my Delta flights, the plane runs out of overhead bin space and our departure gets delayed with so many people having to reshift bags or check them though to their destination.  WOW's boarding process, on the other hand, went very smoothly...

The Seats

... Except for the fact that there were at least two cases where two people were assigned to the same seat.  WOW has an interesting syst
em where you can optionally choose your seat ahead of time for $7-10.  Otherwise, it is assigned randomly to you at check-in.  Luckily, there were still enough seats for everyone on board, but they clearly need to sort out their computer system a little bit more.  I opted into choosing a seat because I cannot fall asleep unless I have a window seat.  It was definitely worth it for me, but I don't think you should have to pay extra just to get your seat number ahead of time.  Although there is also the choice to choose a seat with more leg room, which costs about $40-60 and it makes sense for there to be a fee for this.  As for the physical seats themselves, they were pretty average compared to other airlines.  However, there were not any entertainment screens on the backs of the seats, which was a little disappointing for such long flights, but I just slept the whole way.

Pretty clouds over England

My virst glimpse of France!

 Overall, I really liked WOW Air.  I obviously can't use it for all of my flights because it only goes between the US and Iceland and Iceland and Europe.  Another drawback is all of the added-on fees.  Checking bags can add up quickly and it's pretty annoying to have to pay to simply choose your seat.  There were also no in-flight meals included, which was really annoying but you could buy food in the terminal or during the flight.  In all, it cost me about $400 to fly one-way from Boston to Paris.  However, it would have probably cost me upwards of $600 to fly on Delta or another major airline one-way so it was worth it for me since I still didn't know my return dates or cities before I left.  In conclusion, WOW Air is great for specific kinds of trips, but not as a general-use airline, which is not what they are trying to be anyway!